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 by Staff Writers Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 13, 2018
Opportunity is continuing her exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover has moved along the north fork of a local flow channel about half way down the valley. Greatly improved energy levels from dust cleaning of the solar arrays has allowed the rover to be active longer each day and occasionally overnight. On Sol 4986 (Feb. 1, 2018), the robotic arm (also called the Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD) was used to offset the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) on a related surface target. With the improved energy levels, the rover was able to run the APXS overnight for a long integration at favorable instrument detector temperatures. The APXS integration continued into the next sol, although stopping before midnight. Shorter APXS integrations continued for the next two sols along with the collection of sweeping Panoramic Camera (Pancam) color stereo panoramas. On Sol 4990 (Feb. 5, 2018), Opportunity backed up about 13.1 feet (4 meters) to set up for an approach to an uphill target. On Sol 4991 (Feb. 6, 2018), the rover moved forward about 13.1 feet (4 meters) straight north. However, Opportunity stopped about 3.3 feet (1 meter) short of the intended target due to the difficulty of tracking the progress with visual odometry in this complicated terrain. The plan ahead will be to bump the last meter to reach the intended surface target. As of Sol 4991 (Feb. 6, 2018), the solar array energy production was an increased 628 watt-hours with an atmospheric opacity (Tau) of 0.424 and an improved solar array dust factor of 0.829. Total odometry is 28.02 miles (45.10 kilometers).
Opportunity Celebrates 14 Years of Working on Mars Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 05, 2018 Opportunity is continuing her exploration of "Perseverance Valley" on the west rim of Endeavour Crater. The rover has moved along the north fork of the local flow channel. Continuing the extensive collection of stereo imagery, the rover used the Navigation Cameras (Navcams) to collect two tiers of a wide panorama. Then on the next sol, the robotic arm (also called the Instrument Deployment Device, or IDD) performed an offset placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) to a new ... read more
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